PAIN MANAGEMENT AND HEALTH PROBLEMS
Chronic pain and depression are often closely related. The stress of living with chronic pain commonly lead to depression and the changes in lifestyle due to pain can also manifest in depression. Apart from feeling low, people may also experience feelings of grief, anger and irritability.
Treatment plans are designed for each person and it often involves teaching relaxation techniques, changing old beliefs about pain, building coping skills and addressing any anxiety or depression that may accompany the pain. Chronic pain often does not only impact on the person affected only, but also the other people and relationships they may have.
Interpersonal therapy can be very beneficial.
Furthermore, there is increasing evidence to suggest that mindfulness is an effective strategy to make pain more tolerable. Mindfulness teaches people with chronic pain to manage their thoughts and feelings about pain in a more tolerable and calm way.
Pain often sets our brains into an “alarm mode” which can make our experience of the pain worse. Applying mindfulness to your pain helps you to manage your pain in a different way and it reduces the distress and anxiety associated with pain.
Mindfulness provides a more accurate experience of pain. It helps you to listen to your body, to put control on the back seat and to take control of your life.
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom
VIKTOR FRANKL